Re:This is a horrible idea.....
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Build-to-Order Cars?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
No, no such standard exists in the car industry. You can plug a Chevy engine into a Mazda, but it requires an awful lot of work, and even then, it's not going to be as reliable as the stock engine in the stock vehicle.
I don't see how it can work. What they are going to end up with is a car that's only slightly more customizible than a Ford. Maybe you can pick your color from a million different colors, or your interior material from thousands of materials, but even this requires a lot of logistics. Car manufacturers don't limit your choice of color because they only want you to have a few choices, they limit it because changing colors on the assembly line is a lot of time and work. You can have maybe a dozen or so colors ready to go, but mixing and readying a special paint for one car takes a lot of time.
It's a great idea, but I think it's way ahead of its time.
I am reminded of another good example, though fictional at this time, of matter replicators as seen on Star Trek et al. If we could download the recipe for a meal and replicate it, should that be deemed illegal, or should we end world hunger virtually overnight? Careful. The last time I used this analogy on here, I was accused of spouting nonsense. I was told to maintain a grip on reality and that replicator technology was impossible. I believe it was compared to unicorns and leprechans.
Fact is, we'll have it eventually. We already have three diminsional printers, and all a replicator is is a three diminsional molecular (or atomic) printer. Put enough raw elements in on one end, and you should be able to print out anything you want on the other. There's no physical laws that make this impossible. And, the copyright ramifications are going to be HUGE.
And that's pretty much what my friend tells people: "call me when you get served, then it's real."
Some people believe that contacting them early is the best deal, and you might get them to drop the thing entirely. My friends says if they are going to file on you, they're going to file, since filing 101 cases isn't much more work than filing 100, especially when you're just using a template like DTV is. Some people also think they'll get a better deal settling early, and that may be true, but in civil law, just about everything is negotiable.
That said, it's pretty much in your best interest to settle unless you've purchased more than a few devices. Fighting it out may be the right thing to do, but it costs a whole lot of money to be right -- probably more than it will cost you to be 'wrong'. It's also a civil court, where the burden of proof is much less, and you can't plead the fifth if you decide to take the stand. On top of that, it's federal court, and there's a lot more room for the amateur lawyer to screw up and get a default judgement rendered.
Well, to be honest with you, there's a small thing called attourney-client privledge. So, even if my lawyer friend knows, he wouldn't tell me. He won't even tell me the details about the shit my brother is involved in, though my brother will tell me if I just ask. Also, if his clients come in and tell him they are guilty, it limits many of the things he's going to be able to do for them in a court of law. So, although he will tell you it's in your best interest to tell him the truth, he will also tell you that it will be very difficult to represent you as innocent if you tell him you're guilty.
In conclusion, I don't know the number of innocent to guilty, and I suspect my friend doesn't either. I do know that at least one is not guilty. Take that for whatever it's worth.
Right. They are suing these people in Federal Court. I am good friends with a lawyer handling the defense for several of these cases. Right off the bat, he's asking for for $3,000 in retainer fees. He anticipates actually fighting the whole thing out -- assuming no one settles -- could easily cost over $10,000 for his clients. Again, that's if no one bothers to appeal.
Some are fighting because DirecTV wants an admission of guilt, and some are fighting because they have ordered so much stuff, DirecTV's 'settlement' offer is still in the millions of dollars. Last, a few are fighting because they have the money (Dellionaires) and are fighting on priciple alone. However, for most people, simply paying the $3500 and walking away makes a lot more sense than fighting.
For the record, all of these lawsuits have been thrown out in California, and thrown out in such a way that they cannot be resubmitted by DirecTV. Apparently, the judge was offended by the audacity of the lack of evidence. The people who settled prior to the ruling have filed a class action lawsuit against DTV. One man has won his court case in Michigan (I think that's where) and all the other cases are still pending or have been settled out of court.
Umm, I'd just like to point out... duh? They make good products, and it keeps them afloat. Hell, not just afloat, but practially surfing their incredibly profitable niche.
Notice even you say "their... niche". There was a time not so long ago that Nintendo wasn't a niche player. Why are they a niche market now? Because they haven't paid attention to the market. And they still aren't. If they keep making mistakes, they'll go from a powerhouse to a niche player to a company that is no longer profitable.
What I'm trying to say is that their great first party games are keeping them afloat, and that is not dependent on manufacturing hardware. There's no reason to keep making hardware just because you make great software. In fact, Sega seems to be doing a lot better since they dropped their flawed hardware product lines.
The game boy has kept them afloat for a long time as well, but they've been repackaging and selling the same thing over and over and over again. They've also benefited from a lack of real competition since the original game boy beat out the competition in the early 90's. I'm curious to see what happens when Sony joins this battle.
I'm just not sure that Nintendo really has a case for staying in the hardware business when it seems people buy Nintendo for reasons irrelevant to the hardware itself.
Yes, but overall, it was a failure because they lost vast amounts of marketshare to Sony.
Nintendo has really fantastic first party games. And really, that and the game boy are about the only things keeping them afloat.
I've been predicting for years that Nintendo would and should go the way of Sega (offering their excellent titles on all platforms), but they insist on making mistakes and squandering market share.
NASA is hindered because they think space is only for scientists and research projects. The adversion to space 'tourists' is so high there, I don't know if they could embrace it even if would save the organization as a whole.
I'm not worried about the chip as it stands today. I could be worried about the privacy issues, but it appears that a search warrant must be issued, so not a big deal there. I mihgt be more concerned if an officer could request any history back to the manufacture of the car, but this is a limited data set, so again, I don't have a problem with the chips as they are implimented today.
The previous poster was speaking about incorporating a chip that would limit vehicular speed or would issue tickets when the car exceeded the speed limit.
The 'Fast and Furious' crowd actually scares me. The things they pass off as 'safe' modifications are anything but. I fear that their irresponsibility will one day restrict my responsibile modification of my street vehicles. And honestly, computer controlled driving on public streets doesn't sound like an overly bad idea to me, interstate driving is particularly boring, made excessively dangerous by those who drive too slow, too fast, have improperly maintained vehicles, stay in the 'wrong' lane, etc. I'm quite sure that traffic would flow much faster and much safer with computer interaction -- and that's all I really want.
I do enjoy driving, but I enjoy driving on a track even more. So long as I can still race on a track, I can be happy.
Chalk me up as one of the first people to get one of these modded chips. I legally race my cars on the weekend, as do many of my friends. I also don't like my free will being taken from me in the car. As an experienced race car driver, with an SCCA license and plenty of track time and driving schools under my belt, I can tell you that there are certain times when more throttle is exactly what you need.
Not only will this kind of chip take away my ability to race my cars (again, I must state that I only race on the track), and will make my car more dangerous on the road by removing my ability to brake if nessessary.
To answer your points above:
1.) Many of friends remove or disable the airbag, because they have installed five point racing harnesses, and the air bag really isn't going to help in a collision, and will cause additional damage to the car.
2.) Again, if the bag isn't there, it can't hurt you. I'm not saying the bag isn't a good thing, I still have mine, but it's not the end-all be-all that some people believe that it is. It's a supplimental restraint system. If you have the proper primary restraint system, the supplimental one doesn't have a whole lot to do.
Even so, the airbags aren't deployed by speedometer, they are deployed by an accelerometer, which is what sometimes causes the bags to explode when they shouldn't. Tampering with the EDR shouldn't change anything with the accelerometer (which only measures effective acceleration and deceleration, not relative speed).
2.5) (replace airbag w/ transmission, etc) First, I don't own a single automatic automobile. Never have, and hopefully, never will. Not everyone likes to have a computer shift for them. Even so, most upshifts and downshifts on automatic transmission are handled by the engine RPMs and amount of throttle, not the speed of the car. If this was the case, changing tires would cause all kinds of problems. Now, you do have a point with ABS and stability control systems, but these are easily disabled, and many racers do exactly that.
I didn't say that everything they created was better, but even in a society that actively discouraged innovation and success, people still managed to innovate. The AK-47 rifle is a perfect example of something developed under communist rule that even today is still better in many respects than most comparable firearms.
Just because people have a Star Trek replicator doesn't mean that progress will come to a screeching halt. It might slow down, but I think I can make a case that it could speed up just as easily.
People would still innovate and create. Why? Because if all these things were nearly free, we'd have A LOT more free time. Sitting on a beach drinking margaritas sounds great, but I can assure you that it gets boring after a time.
I'm sure there are some people who wouldn't want to create things, but even in communist countries, where there is an incentive to not create, people still manage to make new products. People would still donate their free time to things like Linux, and perhaps more of it since they don't need to work as hard.
I identify with my European ancestry because my background is almost entirely that, with the notable exception of the aforementioned grandmother. My last name is European (Irish), and comes from the aformentioned grandfather.
I find it a bit dishonest to say I'm a native american when I look nothing like a native american, I don't have a native american name, and no one in my family practices any kind of NA traditions. I didn't even claim it for scholarship applications, though I was highly encouraged to do so.
Also, I can trace my ancestry back to Ireland and England, but I can't trace my native american grandmother past her involvement with my grandfather.
Isn't that the truth. In the whole of my history classes, I got to World War II only once -- and that was in college. Only one of the other classes made it to the 1900's.
On top of that, anything truly interesting (read controversial) was simply glossed over -- with the exception of slavery, where I was told that I was responsible today for the sins of my great, great, great grandfather 150 years ago. I shouldn't have to say that he wasn't even in America, and the first of my ancestry to set foot in America married a Native American.
History isn't about learning, if it ever was. It's all about indoctrination.
Personally? I love them. Cannot stand the trackpads. I can't imagine any geek liking them over an extended period of time. Why? Let me count the ways.
Trackpads are imprecise. Very imprecise. I can get incredible precision out of my trackpoint, nearly as good as I can with a mouse. To achieve the proper granularity out of the trackpad, I've got to jack up the sensitivity, which leads to the other problem.
There's not a 1:1 relationship with the screen. To move the pointer across the screen (unless it's a banzai run, and sometimes not even then), you've got to drag, lift, drag, lift, drag, lift, rinse, repeat. I feel like I'm using a mouse on a desk about two inches square. If I get pointer to the point where I can move it quickly, I can't get the fine control I need.
With all that lifting and pushing, inevitably, I get a nice 'click' when I didn't want one. God forbid I should touch down on the pad with a double touch, then I might really do something I didn't want.
The touchpad is under my thumbs. Who in the world thought this was a good idea? OK, yes, I know that you can set it to turn off the touchpad when you're typing -- but it's still a hack, and you shouldn't have to do it. Even when it's 'turned off', it's still possible to do actions you didn't intend, particularly if you pause for a second to study your code. It's just another imperfection of the touchpad.
This is kind of a continuation of the above, but one of the things I love about my trackpoint is that I can use the mouse and never take my hands off the keyboard. It's the best of both worlds. On the few occasions I need to use the mouse, it's right at my fingertips. I don't have to move my hands or anything except move my index finger over a bit and my thumb down.
I know there are others, but it's 2:30, and that's all I can think of for now.
I find most people who have trouble with trackpoints have problems for two reasons. Number one, they don't realize that the harder you push, the faster the pointer moves. Slow pushes give you great precision. Hard pushes zoom the thing across the screen. Number two, most people aren't used to pushing on something that doesn't move and getting a response. The stalk isn't supposed to move, but it will record even the slightest brush of your fingertips.
I was beginning to think that no one remembered lyrics.ch. Has it really been that long ago?
Lyrics.ch was a great site, and I have yet to see it's equal. It used to be the place to get song lyrics. I can remember printing out all the lyrics to several CDs because the artists had thoughtfully not provided them inside the jewelcase.
Then the Harry Fox agency came along and was horrified that someone could actually download lyrics to songs without paying for them. Not that they had a good mechanism for you to pay for them, or that they were losing money -- they just wanted their pound of flesh from a site that wasn't even profitable.
As a result, lyrics.ch died. Sure, they brought it back, but they were so worried about what people might do if they could easily copy the lyrics that they made it unusable. The applet sucks balls, and only displays about five lines of the song at a time. Worse, it "pages" through the lyrics at a rate that doesn't synch with the song. So, even if you are a Windows user, the site is so hostile as to be unusable. But of course, copying the lyrics is nearly impossible. Meanwhile, the artists aren't making any more money, the Harry Fox agency isn't making money (who would pay for that crippled shite?), and the end user is deprived of a valuable resource.
Don't forget that one day we will have a Star Trek style replicator. Raw material goes in one end, and exact copies come out the other, much as we copy digital files today. You'll be able to scan your neighbor's 'unique' 1966 Ford 427 AC Cobra, and make yourself an exact replica.
If you do such a thing, who is harmed? Carrol Shelby because he was unable to sell you a Cobra in 1966? Your neighbor because he can't sell you his car today? Ford because they can't make a new Cobra and sell it to you?
Copying isn't stealing though it may indirectly deprive someone of potential income. I consider this intellectual property discussion to become one of the biggest issues as we move from the industrial age with its scarcity of resources and into the information age with its relative non-scarcity of resources.
Right, but those are the rare few games that withstood the test of time. What I'd like to know is where I can find a copy of "Head over Heels" for the Commodore 64, and some hardware reliable enough to play it on. The problem is, not enough copies were sold, it wasn't popular enough to port, any old copies are suspect to failure, the C-64 was flaky back then, a used C-64 is a crapshoot at best, and won't hook into my television anyway.
But, dammit, I loved that game. I don't see where society is served by letting it die because the copyright holder doesn't see commercial value in it.
I only wish my ratio was 50%. I probably see 60 or 70 spams to my email daily. I get maybe 20 or 30 legitimate emails.
But the thing that's really pissing me off is when they use topics and names that are just bland enough that I can't safely delete the stuff without wondering if I'm deleting legitimate email.
I notice the guy who's built a case out of stained glass did it using the copper-foil method, which is pretty common for making very small jewelery boxes and such. The only problem is that it's not overly strong, and will break over time in an application such as this one. I know because I have many small copper foil projects that have not lasted over time. I have many that have, but they are all projects that were display pieces, and not used.
I highly recommend the use of the lead and solder method. You won't be able to make odd shapes, but a computer case is mostly a square box, and the project will be much more sturdy and last a lot longer -- especially if you plan on moving it around.
You can easily see the break in the wood ramp. There's also an electrical contact that the cylinder makes to make the window roll down.
Here's the synopsis:
1. Transmission bearing rolls, hits second bearing. 2. Second bearing rolls, hits third. 3. Third bearing rolls, hits contration to release cam shaft. 4. Cam shaft rolls, hits tailpipe. 5. Tailpipe spins, hits valve stem on hood. 6. Valve stem hits other valve stem. 7. Second valve stem hits third valve stem. 8. Valve stem falls off hood, hits something. 9. That something hits a spring loaded mechanism mounted to engine valve cover. 10. Spring loaded mechanism hits radiator. 11. Radiator falls, hits tire. 12. Tire hits weighted tire on ramp. 13. Tire rolls uphill, hits second weighted tire. 14. Second weighted tire rolls uphill, hits third weighted tire. 15. Third weighted tire rolls uphill, hits disc brake rotor(?). 16. Rotor falls on string, pulls seat back to it's full upright position. 17. Seat triggers release of windshield wiper mechanism. 18. Mecanism trips oil can. 19. Oil can pours onto platform, weighting one end down. 20. Platform tilts, releasing bearings(?) which roll into engine head. 21. Engine head on lever causes battery to rise. 22. Battery makes electrical connection, makes fan run. 23. Fan runs, which causes it to move. It moves forward, disconnects from power source, and runs into metal wire, releasing nut. 24. Nut drops, causes muffler to roll.
***CGI CUT***
25. Muffler rolls into strange contraption. 26. Strange contraption flings nut. 27. Nut hits tire on front end of car. 28. Tire rolls onto wire. 29. Wire sets into motion contraption made mostly of connecting rods. 30. Connecting rod starts metal cylinder rolling. 31. Metal cylinder hits connecting rod contraption and stops. 32. Potential energy stored in contraption causes rod to swing and kick off the metal cylinder. 33. Cylinder hits window, makes electical contact. 34. Electrical contact rolls down window. 35. Cylinder rolls again, past window onto new ramp, then off ramp onto "oh shit" handles. 36. Cylinder rolls off "oh shit" handles, onto battery, makes electrical contact. 37. Contact causes winshield squirters to spray water on windshield. 38. Windshield sensor detects "rain", turns on wipers. 39. Wipers crawl across floor, trip emergency brake. 40. Emergency brake sets window mobile in motion. 41. Window mobile causes wind, pushing over plastic panel. 42. Plastic panel has metal cylinder on top. Cylinder rolls into shock spring. 43. Shock spring has metal rod in it, which spins down. 44. Rod makes electrical contact, starts stereo. 45. Stereo connected to woofers under windshield. 46. Vibration causes spring to roll onto clutch pedal. 47. Depression of clutch pedal activates assembly which presses "hatch close" on door key. 48. Hatch closes, unbalancing platform. 49. Platform tilts, car rolls. 50. Car hits something that causees the Accord banner to unfurl.
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No, no such standard exists in the car industry. You can plug a Chevy engine into a Mazda, but it requires an awful lot of work, and even then, it's not going to be as reliable as the stock engine in the stock vehicle.
I don't see how it can work. What they are going to end up with is a car that's only slightly more customizible than a Ford. Maybe you can pick your color from a million different colors, or your interior material from thousands of materials, but even this requires a lot of logistics. Car manufacturers don't limit your choice of color because they only want you to have a few choices, they limit it because changing colors on the assembly line is a lot of time and work. You can have maybe a dozen or so colors ready to go, but mixing and readying a special paint for one car takes a lot of time.
It's a great idea, but I think it's way ahead of its time.
I am reminded of another good example, though fictional at this time, of matter replicators as seen on Star Trek et al. If we could download the recipe for a meal and replicate it, should that be deemed illegal, or should we end world hunger virtually overnight?
Careful. The last time I used this analogy on here, I was accused of spouting nonsense. I was told to maintain a grip on reality and that replicator technology was impossible. I believe it was compared to unicorns and leprechans.
Fact is, we'll have it eventually. We already have three diminsional printers, and all a replicator is is a three diminsional molecular (or atomic) printer. Put enough raw elements in on one end, and you should be able to print out anything you want on the other. There's no physical laws that make this impossible. And, the copyright ramifications are going to be HUGE.
And that's pretty much what my friend tells people: "call me when you get served, then it's real."
Some people believe that contacting them early is the best deal, and you might get them to drop the thing entirely. My friends says if they are going to file on you, they're going to file, since filing 101 cases isn't much more work than filing 100, especially when you're just using a template like DTV is. Some people also think they'll get a better deal settling early, and that may be true, but in civil law, just about everything is negotiable.
That said, it's pretty much in your best interest to settle unless you've purchased more than a few devices. Fighting it out may be the right thing to do, but it costs a whole lot of money to be right -- probably more than it will cost you to be 'wrong'. It's also a civil court, where the burden of proof is much less, and you can't plead the fifth if you decide to take the stand. On top of that, it's federal court, and there's a lot more room for the amateur lawyer to screw up and get a default judgement rendered.
Well, to be honest with you, there's a small thing called attourney-client privledge. So, even if my lawyer friend knows, he wouldn't tell me. He won't even tell me the details about the shit my brother is involved in, though my brother will tell me if I just ask. Also, if his clients come in and tell him they are guilty, it limits many of the things he's going to be able to do for them in a court of law. So, although he will tell you it's in your best interest to tell him the truth, he will also tell you that it will be very difficult to represent you as innocent if you tell him you're guilty.
In conclusion, I don't know the number of innocent to guilty, and I suspect my friend doesn't either. I do know that at least one is not guilty. Take that for whatever it's worth.
Some are fighting because DirecTV wants an admission of guilt, and some are fighting because they have ordered so much stuff, DirecTV's 'settlement' offer is still in the millions of dollars. Last, a few are fighting because they have the money (Dellionaires) and are fighting on priciple alone. However, for most people, simply paying the $3500 and walking away makes a lot more sense than fighting.
For the record, all of these lawsuits have been thrown out in California, and thrown out in such a way that they cannot be resubmitted by DirecTV. Apparently, the judge was offended by the audacity of the lack of evidence. The people who settled prior to the ruling have filed a class action lawsuit against DTV. One man has won his court case in Michigan (I think that's where) and all the other cases are still pending or have been settled out of court.
I also had this book for my university Discrete Math course. It's one of my favorite math books. I did not sell it back at the end of the year.
Umm, I'd just like to point out ... duh? They make good products, and it keeps them afloat. Hell, not just afloat, but practially surfing their incredibly profitable niche.
... niche". There was a time not so long ago that Nintendo wasn't a niche player. Why are they a niche market now? Because they haven't paid attention to the market. And they still aren't. If they keep making mistakes, they'll go from a powerhouse to a niche player to a company that is no longer profitable.
Notice even you say "their
What I'm trying to say is that their great first party games are keeping them afloat, and that is not dependent on manufacturing hardware. There's no reason to keep making hardware just because you make great software. In fact, Sega seems to be doing a lot better since they dropped their flawed hardware product lines.
The game boy has kept them afloat for a long time as well, but they've been repackaging and selling the same thing over and over and over again. They've also benefited from a lack of real competition since the original game boy beat out the competition in the early 90's. I'm curious to see what happens when Sony joins this battle.
I'm just not sure that Nintendo really has a case for staying in the hardware business when it seems people buy Nintendo for reasons irrelevant to the hardware itself.
Yes, but overall, it was a failure because they lost vast amounts of marketshare to Sony.
Nintendo has really fantastic first party games. And really, that and the game boy are about the only things keeping them afloat.
I've been predicting for years that Nintendo would and should go the way of Sega (offering their excellent titles on all platforms), but they insist on making mistakes and squandering market share.
Just how out of touch can congress get with the average American?
NASA is hindered because they think space is only for scientists and research projects. The adversion to space 'tourists' is so high there, I don't know if they could embrace it even if would save the organization as a whole.
I'm not worried about the chip as it stands today. I could be worried about the privacy issues, but it appears that a search warrant must be issued, so not a big deal there. I mihgt be more concerned if an officer could request any history back to the manufacture of the car, but this is a limited data set, so again, I don't have a problem with the chips as they are implimented today.
The previous poster was speaking about incorporating a chip that would limit vehicular speed or would issue tickets when the car exceeded the speed limit.
The 'Fast and Furious' crowd actually scares me. The things they pass off as 'safe' modifications are anything but. I fear that their irresponsibility will one day restrict my responsibile modification of my street vehicles. And honestly, computer controlled driving on public streets doesn't sound like an overly bad idea to me, interstate driving is particularly boring, made excessively dangerous by those who drive too slow, too fast, have improperly maintained vehicles, stay in the 'wrong' lane, etc. I'm quite sure that traffic would flow much faster and much safer with computer interaction -- and that's all I really want.
I do enjoy driving, but I enjoy driving on a track even more. So long as I can still race on a track, I can be happy.
Chalk me up as one of the first people to get one of these modded chips. I legally race my cars on the weekend, as do many of my friends. I also don't like my free will being taken from me in the car. As an experienced race car driver, with an SCCA license and plenty of track time and driving schools under my belt, I can tell you that there are certain times when more throttle is exactly what you need.
Not only will this kind of chip take away my ability to race my cars (again, I must state that I only race on the track), and will make my car more dangerous on the road by removing my ability to brake if nessessary.
To answer your points above:
1.) Many of friends remove or disable the airbag, because they have installed five point racing harnesses, and the air bag really isn't going to help in a collision, and will cause additional damage to the car.
2.) Again, if the bag isn't there, it can't hurt you. I'm not saying the bag isn't a good thing, I still have mine, but it's not the end-all be-all that some people believe that it is. It's a supplimental restraint system. If you have the proper primary restraint system, the supplimental one doesn't have a whole lot to do.
Even so, the airbags aren't deployed by speedometer, they are deployed by an accelerometer, which is what sometimes causes the bags to explode when they shouldn't. Tampering with the EDR shouldn't change anything with the accelerometer (which only measures effective acceleration and deceleration, not relative speed).
2.5) (replace airbag w/ transmission, etc) First, I don't own a single automatic automobile. Never have, and hopefully, never will. Not everyone likes to have a computer shift for them. Even so, most upshifts and downshifts on automatic transmission are handled by the engine RPMs and amount of throttle, not the speed of the car. If this was the case, changing tires would cause all kinds of problems. Now, you do have a point with ABS and stability control systems, but these are easily disabled, and many racers do exactly that.
I didn't say that everything they created was better, but even in a society that actively discouraged innovation and success, people still managed to innovate. The AK-47 rifle is a perfect example of something developed under communist rule that even today is still better in many respects than most comparable firearms.
Just because people have a Star Trek replicator doesn't mean that progress will come to a screeching halt. It might slow down, but I think I can make a case that it could speed up just as easily.
People would still innovate and create. Why? Because if all these things were nearly free, we'd have A LOT more free time. Sitting on a beach drinking margaritas sounds great, but I can assure you that it gets boring after a time.
I'm sure there are some people who wouldn't want to create things, but even in communist countries, where there is an incentive to not create, people still manage to make new products. People would still donate their free time to things like Linux, and perhaps more of it since they don't need to work as hard.
I identify with my European ancestry because my background is almost entirely that, with the notable exception of the aforementioned grandmother. My last name is European (Irish), and comes from the aformentioned grandfather.
I find it a bit dishonest to say I'm a native american when I look nothing like a native american, I don't have a native american name, and no one in my family practices any kind of NA traditions. I didn't even claim it for scholarship applications, though I was highly encouraged to do so.
Also, I can trace my ancestry back to Ireland and England, but I can't trace my native american grandmother past her involvement with my grandfather.
Isn't that the truth. In the whole of my history classes, I got to World War II only once -- and that was in college. Only one of the other classes made it to the 1900's.
On top of that, anything truly interesting (read controversial) was simply glossed over -- with the exception of slavery, where I was told that I was responsible today for the sins of my great, great, great grandfather 150 years ago. I shouldn't have to say that he wasn't even in America, and the first of my ancestry to set foot in America married a Native American.
History isn't about learning, if it ever was. It's all about indoctrination.
I know there are others, but it's 2:30, and that's all I can think of for now.
I find most people who have trouble with trackpoints have problems for two reasons. Number one, they don't realize that the harder you push, the faster the pointer moves. Slow pushes give you great precision. Hard pushes zoom the thing across the screen. Number two, most people aren't used to pushing on something that doesn't move and getting a response. The stalk isn't supposed to move, but it will record even the slightest brush of your fingertips.
I was beginning to think that no one remembered lyrics.ch. Has it really been that long ago?
Lyrics.ch was a great site, and I have yet to see it's equal. It used to be the place to get song lyrics. I can remember printing out all the lyrics to several CDs because the artists had thoughtfully not provided them inside the jewelcase.
Then the Harry Fox agency came along and was horrified that someone could actually download lyrics to songs without paying for them. Not that they had a good mechanism for you to pay for them, or that they were losing money -- they just wanted their pound of flesh from a site that wasn't even profitable.
As a result, lyrics.ch died. Sure, they brought it back, but they were so worried about what people might do if they could easily copy the lyrics that they made it unusable. The applet sucks balls, and only displays about five lines of the song at a time. Worse, it "pages" through the lyrics at a rate that doesn't synch with the song. So, even if you are a Windows user, the site is so hostile as to be unusable. But of course, copying the lyrics is nearly impossible. Meanwhile, the artists aren't making any more money, the Harry Fox agency isn't making money (who would pay for that crippled shite?), and the end user is deprived of a valuable resource.
Copyright has certainly gone way too far.
Don't forget that one day we will have a Star Trek style replicator. Raw material goes in one end, and exact copies come out the other, much as we copy digital files today. You'll be able to scan your neighbor's 'unique' 1966 Ford 427 AC Cobra, and make yourself an exact replica.
If you do such a thing, who is harmed? Carrol Shelby because he was unable to sell you a Cobra in 1966? Your neighbor because he can't sell you his car today? Ford because they can't make a new Cobra and sell it to you?
Copying isn't stealing though it may indirectly deprive someone of potential income. I consider this intellectual property discussion to become one of the biggest issues as we move from the industrial age with its scarcity of resources and into the information age with its relative non-scarcity of resources.
Right, but those are the rare few games that withstood the test of time. What I'd like to know is where I can find a copy of "Head over Heels" for the Commodore 64, and some hardware reliable enough to play it on. The problem is, not enough copies were sold, it wasn't popular enough to port, any old copies are suspect to failure, the C-64 was flaky back then, a used C-64 is a crapshoot at best, and won't hook into my television anyway.
But, dammit, I loved that game. I don't see where society is served by letting it die because the copyright holder doesn't see commercial value in it.
It obviously must not be significant enough for the copyright holder to exploit it. Just significant enough to keep others from doing so.
I only wish my ratio was 50%. I probably see 60 or 70 spams to my email daily. I get maybe 20 or 30 legitimate emails.
But the thing that's really pissing me off is when they use topics and names that are just bland enough that I can't safely delete the stuff without wondering if I'm deleting legitimate email.
I notice the guy who's built a case out of stained glass did it using the copper-foil method, which is pretty common for making very small jewelery boxes and such. The only problem is that it's not overly strong, and will break over time in an application such as this one. I know because I have many small copper foil projects that have not lasted over time. I have many that have, but they are all projects that were display pieces, and not used.
I highly recommend the use of the lead and solder method. You won't be able to make odd shapes, but a computer case is mostly a square box, and the project will be much more sturdy and last a lot longer -- especially if you plan on moving it around.
Yeah, you're right. I totally goofed on that one. After reviewing the ad, it's definately a strap, and probably a seat belt strap.
You can easily see the break in the wood ramp. There's also an electrical contact that the cylinder makes to make the window roll down.
Here's the synopsis:
1. Transmission bearing rolls, hits second bearing.
2. Second bearing rolls, hits third.
3. Third bearing rolls, hits contration to release cam shaft.
4. Cam shaft rolls, hits tailpipe.
5. Tailpipe spins, hits valve stem on hood.
6. Valve stem hits other valve stem.
7. Second valve stem hits third valve stem.
8. Valve stem falls off hood, hits something.
9. That something hits a spring loaded mechanism mounted to engine valve cover.
10. Spring loaded mechanism hits radiator.
11. Radiator falls, hits tire.
12. Tire hits weighted tire on ramp.
13. Tire rolls uphill, hits second weighted tire.
14. Second weighted tire rolls uphill, hits third weighted tire.
15. Third weighted tire rolls uphill, hits disc brake rotor(?).
16. Rotor falls on string, pulls seat back to it's full upright position.
17. Seat triggers release of windshield wiper mechanism.
18. Mecanism trips oil can.
19. Oil can pours onto platform, weighting one end down.
20. Platform tilts, releasing bearings(?) which roll into engine head.
21. Engine head on lever causes battery to rise.
22. Battery makes electrical connection, makes fan run.
23. Fan runs, which causes it to move. It moves forward, disconnects from power source, and runs into metal wire, releasing nut.
24. Nut drops, causes muffler to roll.
***CGI CUT***
25. Muffler rolls into strange contraption.
26. Strange contraption flings nut.
27. Nut hits tire on front end of car.
28. Tire rolls onto wire.
29. Wire sets into motion contraption made mostly of connecting rods.
30. Connecting rod starts metal cylinder rolling.
31. Metal cylinder hits connecting rod contraption and stops.
32. Potential energy stored in contraption causes rod to swing and kick off the metal cylinder.
33. Cylinder hits window, makes electical contact.
34. Electrical contact rolls down window.
35. Cylinder rolls again, past window onto new ramp, then off ramp onto "oh shit" handles.
36. Cylinder rolls off "oh shit" handles, onto battery, makes electrical contact.
37. Contact causes winshield squirters to spray water on windshield.
38. Windshield sensor detects "rain", turns on wipers.
39. Wipers crawl across floor, trip emergency brake.
40. Emergency brake sets window mobile in motion.
41. Window mobile causes wind, pushing over plastic panel.
42. Plastic panel has metal cylinder on top. Cylinder rolls into shock spring.
43. Shock spring has metal rod in it, which spins down.
44. Rod makes electrical contact, starts stereo.
45. Stereo connected to woofers under windshield.
46. Vibration causes spring to roll onto clutch pedal.
47. Depression of clutch pedal activates assembly which presses "hatch close" on door key.
48. Hatch closes, unbalancing platform.
49. Platform tilts, car rolls.
50. Car hits something that causees the Accord banner to unfurl.